Best way to access an Oracle 8i database over the web

I have a windows application that I've developed using Delphi. I'd like to be able to access an oracle 8i database over the web. Most of the information will be read from the database (not written). What way should I go? 3tier, ado, http, etc.

that's really your choice :) you need to consider:
- what you know best (so in case there is a problem you can fix it)
- what the computer you run it on wil have or will need
- if this app will be used by many clients you will need an installer which will setup their PC so if you go with stuff that is generally not there on a regular windows PC you will need to either include it in the install kit, or have the installer download it from somewhere

I personally prefer ADO (and ODBC in some cases), because:
- it works with almost all DBMS (DataBase Management System)
- ADO it's alreay installed on most computers
- in case of ODBC all you need to distribute is the odbc connector (and not in all cases)
- modifying the application to use another DBMS is usually done just by changing the connection string (there are some stuff private to a specific DBMS but that is usually easy to spot when you do a simple test of everything :) ). So basically you don't need to rewrite the whole DB thing

so all you need to download and install in case of ado with odbc for oracle is the odbc driver http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/windows/odbc/index.html
I don't know about oracle, but I think the oldest one should work with oracle 8i (and maybe the newer ones too. you'll need to read theiur specs and see which one is better for you)
if you plan on using the one coming with windows, you should read the following KB just in case you don't mess things up: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244661
Obviously, there are other drivers as well, but I haven't used any other.

it depends if you have direct access to the oracle database or not.
if your database is only accessible from the webserver then you need to write a web application
otherwise i would install the oracle client (the latest one (9, 10, 11) is backward compatible with 8)
i use odac components for access to the oracle database from www.devart.com
the oracle client is an install option from the oracle cd
what are you using now to access the oracle db ?

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Randy RichPresidentAuthor Commented: 2008-11-16

Currently I'm using ASTA which is a 3 tier client server. The asta server handles all of the work on the server side. It communicates with sql net and transfers the information out across the Internet via http. On the client side you use the asta client which is built into your application.
The only problem with this arrangement is that the asta server tends to lock up. I've contacted the company, but to date they really haven't offered any solutions. I'm really looking for something that will give me the same functionality, but using a more stable platform with better support. I figured that .net may have something built in to provide 3-tier or something like it.
One thing that I like is the ability to just launch the application on the client side with a minium amount of installation. In other words there is little to deploy. Does this mean that I should stick with the 3-tier model and if so, what vendor should I choose? I don't want to have to install the Oracle client on every user's machine.
Thanks